Feds look to rename Penn Station, potentially for Trump

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was coy last year when asked if the feds would be seeking to rename Penn Station as part of their takeover of the project — but now the demand is explicit.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Senate leadership on several committees — a copy of which was obtained by the Daily News — Duffy lists “administration priorities” for the federal rebuilding of the nation’s busiest rail hub.

Amid a funding request and support for legislation that would allow Amtrak to siphon away state and local taxes, Duffy says the administration intends to “[d]irect Amtrak to rename New York Penn Station.”

The station is currently named for the giant railroad that built the station in 1910 and occupied it until its 1968 merger with archrival New York Central. Duffy’s letter doesn’t mention what the station’s new moniker might be.

But whether or not Penn will join the long list of buildings adorned with the name of President and ex-New Yorker Donald J. Trump has been an open question since the federal government took its redesign over from the MTA last year.

Duffy teased his answer last August when asked by a reporter if the old name would stay.

“I imagine you’re asking, ‘Is this going to be Trump Station?’” Duffy said. “I think that has a nice ring to it.”

Since then, Trump has tried cruder tactics to rename the station for himself.

Earlier this year, Trump tried to ransom completion of the Hudson River Tunnel — a major project meant to increase capacity into Penn Station — for the naming rights to Penn, telling Senator Chuck Schumer that he’d restore the funding he was withholding if Penn and Dulles Airport were renamed for the President.

The funding was later restored by court order.

Schumer reacted to Duffy’s letter by telling The News the secretary “should stop scheming to flatter the president and start delivering the safe, modern station New Yorkers deserve.”

“Donald Trump may want his name plastered across every building in America, but he doesn’t get to turn New York landmarks into monuments to himself,” Schumer said in a statement to The News. “Penn Station needs to be rebuilt for the millions of commuters who use it, not rebranded to satisfy Trump’s bottomless ego.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D- N.Y.), whose central Manhattan district includes Penn Station, similarly blasted the ask on Thursday, noting that no plan to fund the expected $7 billion to $8 billion project has yet been unveiled.

“This will be one of the most expensive projects in the country, yet the administration has nodded to their intention to rename Penn Station after Donald Trump and has not disclosed how it will be funded or who will pay the bill,” Nadler said in a statement. “New York taxpayers and transit riders must not be forced to pay for a Trump vanity project.”

The demand comes as Trump, facing record low approval ratings, has sought to buoy his legacy in a multitude of ways.

Earlier this month, the U.S. mint began striking $1 commemorative coins with the president’s visage, nominally in honor of the nation’s 250th birthday.

Scaffolding still covers the The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., where the President’s name had been surreptitiously added, then removed by court order.

Earlier this month, Palm Beach International Airport in Florida was renamed for the President, who now resides in that state.

Duffy’s letter — which was addressed to leadership of the Senate Committees on Environment and Public Works; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; and Commerce, Science, and Transportation — addresses more than the secretary’s priorities on Penn.

The secretary asked Congress for the authority “to condition Federal funds on a transit agency’s proven progress in reducing fare evasion, passenger assaults, and worker assaults.”

While the NYC subway system was not explicitly named, Duffy has long expressed his opinion the subway is unsafe — though it’s unclear how much he has ridden it outside of a two-stop trip on the B train last year.

Prior to that, Duffy had threatened to pull federal funding from the MTA over subway crime, which at the time was at a decade low.

Duffy also asked Congress Wednesday to “restrict competitive and formula grant funding for bicycle lanes and other bicycle infrastructure that reduce travel throughput for motor vehicles and support removal of existing bike lanes that contribute to congestion.”

Duffy also proposed that Congress eliminate the Mass Transit Account, a stream of federal fuel tax revenue earmarked for public transportation projects.